Vancl Raises US$230 Million in Round F Funding

Popular online fashion e-commerce company, Vancl has closed a big US$230 Million in round F funding. VC investors include IDG, Ceyuan, Lei Jun, Qiming, Toger and Temasek. Interestingly, Vancl CEO, Chen Nian founded Joyo with Lei Jun, which was later acquired by Amazon.

Giving a keynote speech at an annual meeting, CEO Chen Nian mentioned some key points of the e-commerce landscape and entrepreneurship.

In terms of competition, Chen sees one of the biggest threats in the B2C e-commerce battle could be Suning. Although Suning has traditionally focused on electronics, they have expanded into books to compete with DangDang. Likewise, they could move into fashion to compete with Vancl. A possible reason for this threat is that Suning has an established network of physical bricks and mortar locations which give them an advantage with warehousing, logistics and dealing with returns and repairs. However Chen views Vancl with an advantage over brands which are primarily physical stores such as Zara, because they can more quickly design, produce and ship.

Chen gave some simple yet fundamental advice to entrepreneurs to focus on product and users. Without it, there is no income, talented team or capital.